Posts by nz_rachael

I'm one of those weird people that like the treadmill better. I just like how easy it is to challenge myself, because I always know excatly how fast I am going and what the incline is like etc. I never want to run for very long outside, I always feel too hot or too cold and it puts me off!

I also don't like having people watching me run!!! At the gym everyone is there to train and so know one is paying attention to what I am doing, when I run outside it can be embarssing!

I know it can be really hard. My flat mates are all 20 something year old guys, who don't have to worry about their weight. They make all sorts of food, which isn't excatly healthy. Whats worse, is they often serve out my plate, and while its lovely that they made dinner and what not, I feel like then I have to eat what they've cooked. Sometimes they make comments about how much (how little really) I've eaten. But I'm a kinda active female. I dont need to eat as much as 3 builders do!!! When I cook I definatly have more control as to what I eat. But I've found one thing that helps, is to make sure I always have a ton of veges on my plate. I try to have it half full with vege. Then I dont get comments about how little i've eaten coz it looks like a lot. But its a lot healthier, and lower in cals. If I eat the veges first, giving them time to go down, then I get quite full, and even if I eat the not so healthy food they've made I dont eat nearly as much :) :)

wow I wish I could say 3 weeks is long. I was stuck for.... over 9 months!!!!!!!!!! It was riduclously frustrating. I changed up my programme, chenged up what I was eating etc etc. I don't know what made it break eventually. Perhaps I've built a little more muscle and its burning a bit more cals for me?

1. Do you think you eat the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables per day (7-8 servings combined)?

No, not generally. Im pretty happy if I get 3 of fruit and 3 of Vege in a day

2. What was the last piece of candy you ate?

This morning I ate 10 pieces of sugary lollies- this was just bad timing for me, I hadnt had some in awhile before that haha

3. What was the last thing you drank?

My water- which is next to me :)

4. How often do you eat fast food?

Ummm about once a fortnight. I try avoid it, but everyone at my flat has it alot, and I feel strange if I say no too often

5. Name 5 foods that you ate and enjoyed before you were health conscious, but cannot eat now that you know their true lack of nutrition potential?

A lot of muesli bars, which I thought were healthy but they arent really, fruit juice ( i still have sometimes but it would be a glass every few weeks, instead of a few litres a week. 2 minute noodles, McDonalds, BK and the like, and I just pay more attention to whats in my food. I could pick up 2 cans of tuna, and one will have half the calories, half the fat, less sodium etc etc

6. What fast food chain would you eat a lot of if you were employed there?

7. How many times a day do you eat?My 3 main meals, and snacks when required

8. What do you think of the butter versus margarine debate?

Butter tastes waaaay nicer, and doesnt feel fake. But as of this week I have to eleminate all dairy for the next month, so will have to have a lil marg or nothing at all

9. who is the unhealthiest eater in your family and why?

Definatly my sister, as her idea of eating for a day is a coffee, some sugar free sprite, and maybe a piece of toast. Unless you count cigarettes as food *sigh*

10. What do you normally eat for breakfast?

I go thorugh stages. Its either Vogels toast with butter and marmite. For those of you outside NZ vogels is the yummiest toast in the world, and marmite is the best spread, its savoury, and not like anything else I know. Or I eat porridge,or sometimes an soft boiled egg with some wholegrain toast. YUM

Wow since I first wrote the post I have droped down again ( a tiny miniscule amount) but I can't get over I droped down again. I live in New Zealand, where we go by Kgs. I haven't been below 65kgs in what feels like forever! and I weighed myself yesterday- I weighed 64.7 which translates to..... (googles conversion) 142.5 pounds. Yay another half pound!!!

It's nice hearing what you've lost in pounds compared to kilos. I've lost almost 10 pounds... but only 4 kilos :P :P

Basically you are asking how to spot reduce fat from your arms, which everyone will tell you here (unfortuantly) its impossible. Doesn't matter what part of your body it is. Your body will bascially choose for itself where its gunna burn its fat from, it could be your arms, or your stomach, or even your pinky toe! Some people seem to be prone to storing fat in different areas (for me its my tummy! ) so all you can do to get rid of this fat, is to decrease your body fat in general, and the fat on your arms will eventually go.

However you can improve the look of your arms in the mean-time by toning them up, by lifting weights it improves muscle and definiton. Another added bonus of lifting weights (and gaining muscle) is that lifting weights burns a lot of calories, and the more muscles you have the more calories you burn. So even if nothing else is changing, if you have more muscle you burn more calories then before. Which is awesome!! good luck

Working out twice a day can be fine, especially if you are doing differnet types of excerise- you say you will be running in the morning, so if you do weights at night for example. I don't think working out twice a day all the time would be a good idea, because you can over train. However Its okay sometime. I do it myself, but it definatly tires you out!

This answers your second question about working out everyday.. you really shouldn't be doing it, as it doesn't give your body time to recover. Your progress will slow, and if you keep over-training it can actually cause you to go backwards- for example it will take you longer to run the same distance, and you might not even be able to keep running for the same distance!! Obviously not what you want. On your rest days, your body recovers and this is when your muscles can build up, and tone.

This doesn't mean you have to do nothing on your rest day, I know that exercise is cane addictive, and you want to do it everyday! But you can do other things which also burn calories. For example, going for a walk, or doing a heap of your housework. Defiantly a lot more fun then just sitting on the couch watching tv.

If you train really hard, running, lifting weightsor whatever- it basically gets rid of ALL of my cramps the whole time I'm there, and for ages after. So for me, I have more motivation to go to the gym then. Also helps with bad moods :D ahah

Sometimes before I train I feel like I cant be bothered, but I think my brain is now trained to know that If I train I will feel a ton better aftewards. However food isnt as easy, I sometimes feel like im tricked into thinking all those cramps are hunger pains, I eat and eat. Trick is to know when your expecting it, and then when I feel hungr, ask myself am i hungry or is it something else :)

It can be hard sometimes!! I know excatly how you feel. Me and my boyfriend did the long distance thing, except we lived 8 hours apart, and would see each other for a week or so every 6-8 weeks. For that week, all I ate was junk, junk and more junk. No exercise. Just like you I didnt wanna sacrfice having a good time, for exercise etc.

I think its important for you to let him know that you like to eat healthy and look after yourself. I was kinda weird about it for awhile, and didnt tell my bf how much I work out etc, I think I wanted him to think it all came natrually!! haha. But in the end you need some one who shares (or at least appreciates) the same values as you. Me and my bf live together now and he knows all about my healthy eating and my love of the gym!! He is very supportive and knows that most nights i'll be off at the gym, and if im not going to the gym he norally suggests a walk because i'm in a lot better mood after some exercise!! :) :) You will probably be pleasently supprised when you start to share your healthy lifestyle with him. otherwise you are with the wrong guy!! lol

in my opinion just have a break, as someone said earlier, if you go do your workout your not going to be able to do 100% anyway. Just swap your rest day, and really your not missing a workout at all!!

Quite often I swap my rest day, this week I was supposed to have yesterday off, but I went to the gym yesterday and am not going today. Life gets in the way, and as long as your honest with why your taking a day off- and not just making excuses then missing a day isnt going to ruin all your progress

I dont think there is anything wrong with using machine weights. When I started I used machinr weights almost 100% of the time. I spose you could say they are heaps easier in a way- for example I had to halve my bicep curl weight when I swapped from machine weights to free weights. But the thing is, I was pushing myself a lot on both. My strength was still improving a lot when I was using the machines.

In saying that I favour free weights a lil more now as I can quite often multi task e.g bicep curls/shoulder press whilst doing lunges. Where as before I would have had to do all of those seperatly. Also you can put your weights up in smaller incriments then the machines, so you can improve what your lifting more often. And you have a lot more exercise variety with free weights for each muscles group (and even more if you use both!!!)

But each to their own, It's up to you how you do it. You will still be improving either way :) :) :)

there has to be someone???? I ran 6.6km on sunday. was very exciting, only took me 45minutes. Managed to increase distance and time :) I've been doing spin classes, and i think it must have really helped with my fitness!!

I have the exact same problem when it comes to my core. At the time it is a real struggle for me to do. The next day I feel nothing!! If It was my legs or arms I was exercsing at the same intensity I would be sore the next day! I have no idea why my core is differnet.

I know that when I change what exercises im doing, sometimes it helps. And if im doing other exercises that I really have to activate my core to do properly (even though the target isnt my core - like when I do pushups) sometimes they are sore from that.

other then that, when you think you cant possibly do one more rep... do one more rep :D lol

Good work, and great attitude. From personal experience, I found once i was able to run for about that amount of time without stopping, it starts geting heaps easier. You start looking forward to running, because instead of huffing and puffing and feeling terrible you feel good! You start to get the runners high that everyone talks about. Hopefully that helps with your motivation!!!

I feel like I should do the same thing. My Bfs banned me from weighing myself. Because everytime I do I come home angry and upset. I get in terrible moods If I dont workout on the days I was supposed too. I cry about my weight. And nothing used to upset me! Its puting a bit of strain on my relationship, as Im always down on myself. And my BF fell in love with a forever happy and optimistic person. I feel a lot of jealousy of other girls when hes around. And take his comments all the wrong way. No matter what he says to me it sounds like "I used to find you more attractive when you were skinny" and he says I dont listen to him anymore.

I know I cant go on feeling like this. But the thought of not stressing as much, or not working out as much scares me!! I havnt lost any weight in 7 months no matter how hard I try- and all my eating and exercise habits are healthy. So I jsut freak thinking what will happen if I stop. I wish I could do what you've done...

For me I was one of those horrible people who ate all they like, all the junk, huge amounts of food and didnt gain weight. I grew quite tall for a girl ( Im just under 5'9). But when I got to around 15 I must have started gaining a lot of weight. Unfortunatly I didnt notice for about a year. In my head I was still the skinny, lanky girl. Eventually my clothes werent fitting, and I was no longer geting taller, so I worked it out! haha

Around 1800 to 2000. I know im in a healthy range for my height, but I hate that extra bit hanging round my middle. Things that used to look nice, now dont! I want to lose that lil bit extra so I dont have to worry about how my clothes fit etc. And Im 19 :)

I feel like I'm stuck before I've even started. At my heaviest I got up to 152 pounds. I started to eat healthy, and exercise. And the weight dropped off fairly easily. I didn't think much about it and I got down to 137 pounds. Which is fine for my height 5'8.5. Then I went back up to where I am now 149 pounds. For 6 months I've been eating healthier then I ever had in the past, and being going to the gym 3 to 5 times a week. I've been mixing up what I've been doing, and training a lot harder then I used to when I previously lost all the weight. Does anyone have any ideas why I havn't lost any weight in 6months. Its driving me loopy. Can it be a plateu if I havnt started losing weight yet!?!